04.09.16: Dignified Land

Maduro announced in a televise speech today that Venezuela earned $100 million from oil sales in March, and blamed an “oil war” waged by the United States for the sharp fall in Venezuela’s oil income. Income from oil sales has fallen 97% since 2014.

Despite the troubling figure, Maduro assured listeners that nothing would stop Venezuela from overcoming the challenges it faces:

What they [the United States] don’t know is that this dignified land of America’s liberators will continue to follow the path of socialism, whether oil prices are at $1,000 or $0 [per barrel].

DICOM replaced the SIMADI exchange rate, which also operated on a free-floating basis. However, the rate at which DICOM is increasing far outstrips the rate at which SIMADI increased during its entire lifetime. Between February and December 2015, the SIMADI rate rose by Bs. 29.72.